Change in procedure for those in terraces
The following is an extract from tomorrow’s programme explaining a change in procedures for fans with tickets for the Chemflow and RyGas stands.
As most fans know, the three turnstiles at the south-west corner of the stadium serve both the Chemflow End and the RyGas Stand. The stadium design means that to get to the RyGas Stand, fans must walk along the front of the Chemflow End. Unfortunately, some fans with RyGas tickets are going into the Chemflow End, and that causes us two problems: the first is that it can lead to overcrowding in that end, and second, it is depriving the club of income because tickets for the Chemflow End are more expensive than for the RyGas.
We have looked at various ways of trying to resolve this issue. After much debate, we’ve decided that before we take the step of making major, and very expensive, changes to the stadium so that we can manage match days with the maximum possible safety, we are going to instruct the Chemflow stewards to be more rigorous about requiring fans to go to the area of the ground for which they have a ticket.
We are appealing for fans to be cooperative and patient if a steward asks you to show your ticket, either when you enter the Chemflow End for the first time or at any time you re-enter it (for example after half time). We are taking these steps mainly for safety reasons, but also to ensure that fans don’t take a place they’ve not paid the correct price for. Furthermore, fans with the wrong ticket who seek to abuse the system by ducking under the barriers to enter the Chemflow End run the risk of being ejected.
Let’s hope this approach works because, if it doesn’t, our responsibilities to ensure that fans can watch the game safely will then oblige us to spend a substantial sum of money to make physical changes to the stadium to stop the problem. If we have to do that, we will effectively be wasting money that we really ought to be putting towards a new stadium.